Normally my blogs contain humorous little diatribes or reflective thoughts on gaming and collecting in general. However, I feel the very pressing need to make a PSA to the gaming and collecting community at large:

Sellers, PLEASE start checking your games for 'disc rot'.

YES, it exists. I've bought half a dozen games this year alone, online, that had this problem upon arrival, including Panzer Dragoon Saga and several Turbo CD games.

What is disc rot?

Well, first let's explain what it is not: an indication of someone handling the game poorly. Unless there is a scratch on the top layer of the disc that ends up appearing similar to disc rot (a tiny nick on the label can look similar), the problems are separate and unrelated. For some of the games I purchased, the seller felt cheated because of the claim that there were no scratches or problems with the disc and that it was well taken care of. Disc rot damage is typically unrelated to how well one takes care of the disc.

Disc rot, as far as my research has shown, is due to bad disc pressing during the manufacturing process. Apparently microscopic air bubbles or other contaminants may get trapped in with the information layer between the outer polymer layers. Sometimes the pressing may be slightly uneven. Or the thin lacquer protective layer is compromised. In any case, over time the information layer is oxidized in these tiny pockets and 'rust' or 'rot' pieces of the information layer.

In any case, the best way to check for this type of damage is to hold the disc up to a bright light source (older incandescent bulbs work much better than the newer CF) with the center hole covered for eye protection, and look around the surface for tiny (some are VERY tiny) dots of white light. An easy way to make sure that the white dot is disc rot is to check both sides of the disc- the hole goes through both sides, from top through to the bottom. The white dot is simply the light behind the disc passing through the entire disc, as there is nothing in the information layer to block or reflect the light anymore in that little location.

Here is a picture I took of a game with a single disc rot hole- (its the white dot on the disc above the camera reflection.)

And another angle- (this time the white dot below the camera reflection.)

Even though it is only one little dot, it represents damage that cannot be repaired. No scratch removal process can restore the data that is now lost. The game is forever damaged, and likely to get worse over the years.

Now, many sources online will claim that disc rot is a limited-scope problem, concerning only a few years worth of discs from certain manufacturers, (and CD-Rs) and that it is not wide-spread.

But when I learned about this problem, I checked my several hundred discs between Sega CD, Turbo CD, Saturn, and even Dreamcast games and found DOZENS had this problem. Several expensive games I owned were mint- except when held to the light I could see one or more little white dots that proved my game had damage. Some of these I went back to play after not touching for years and found they now would occasionally lock up or not play at all. I had a few FACTORY SEALED games that I opened and found the same thing.

It has been a nerve-shattering nightmare for a collector like me.

But the problem was just getting started. I realized that I bought disc rotted games from everywhere in the country- it wasn't local or just a regional issue, like the north or New England states. Even imports were suspect: I have a copy of the PC-Engine Rondo of Blood Castlevania that is now laced with a small star-pattern of disc-rot that at best makes it skip the music, and at worst occasionally keeps it from loading. That was a Christmas gift from my parents when it was NEW!

And now, whenever I try to buy games online, be it Ebay or even a private seller, no-one knows what I'm talking about when I ask for them to check for this problem. I purchased a game just weeks ago from a private seller. I asked that they check for disc rot and if I could return it if I had any problems, they assured me it was fine but I could return it if need be, and when I received it I noticed it did indeed have disc rot. When I contacted them, complete with pictures of the damage, I was cussed out by a very angry email and the seller accused me of swapping their flawless disc for a damaged one. They even claimed I was setting them up because I asked about it before the sale!

(In this seller's defense, they did apologize later and offered to exchange.)

Before that I ordered a lot of seven CD games from a different seller, asking for them to please check for disc rot, and explained what to look for. They claimed the discs to be fine, and when I got them, three were very visibly disc rot damaged. I contacted them and explained, they responded angrily that the games were fine and were treated very well. They agreed to a return, I sent them, and despite several messages sent, they never responded again.

Before that I finally broke down and bought a replacement Panzer Dragoon Saga online from a seller that offered returns. After arriving, I found disc rot on the fourth disc, sent pictures and an explaination, and after several months they finally got back to me.

As you can see, this is not a small problem.

So please, sellers, THOROUGHLY check your discs against a proper light source, and be understanding if a buyer finds this damage.

I'm getting so sick of this problem, and no one seems to realize how big of a deal it really is.At times I fell like the one guy in the room screaming at the top of my lungs about this and no one believes or knows what I'm talking about.

Big time classic collectors, my heart goes out to you if you read this and check your collection for the first time- it will likely break your heart like mine did. If you have a few hundred Sega CD, Turbo CD, Saturn, or even older PC CD-Rom games, and you look long enough, you likely have at least a few disc rot damaged games. But at least in the future you can avoid spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on games that look flawless until you know what to look for.

So please, pass this info around so us collectors stop getting messed over!

Dammit. I'm actually reading this before I lay down for the night, so this article has the honor of ruining the last five minutes of my day. While I do not have a large collection of Sega CD, Turbo, or Saturn games, I have been looking to expand my Dreamcast games by a small number, and I do have a good number of older PC games. I'd also like to hear from the community if this phenomena also extends to the PSX scene...

With a little bit of luck, we won't be seeing disc rot on DVD-ROMS. I can't help but think that disc rot (if is both progressive and represents a large percentage of old discs) is going to firmly solidify the beliefs of collectors who back up their disc-based games for personal archive purposes (to protect against extinction, something like the original purpose of MAME).

Dammit, this has the potential to really ruin things (or at least mess them up quite a bit).

I can't explain the whole 'town cryer' feeling I've had over this for years.

I have a few PSX games with disc rot: it is harder to see because it shows up as a dark blue dot instead of white (the outer polymer layers are dyed a purple/blue as opposed to the standard translucent CDs.

Be careful with Dreamcast: just a few months ago I bought a Gigawing 2 from a store that knows to check for disc rot, and I still ended up with a disc rot game. It was at the beginning of a 14 hour one way trip and we were gone for a week, and when I got back I couldn't find the receipt I have many Dreamcast games with disc rot- I think it's because of different disc pressing techniques for the then new 1gig discs they used.

It depends. Since most games do not 'fill up' the entire available space for data (imagine a record with only five minutes worth of grooves covering the whole album) the location of the disc rot can miss the valuable data. Or it might be in a location where the data is redundant and the laser can track it elsewhere. Similar to the results from a bad scratch, the problems may be anywhere from nothing, to game-breaking, to skipping, or not loading/booting up.

Worse, if a disc already has evidence of disc rot, there's no reason to assume it doesn't have the same problem for the same reasons elsewhere in the disc and will continue to get worse. I know some of my games have.

And of course, to a collector, damage is damage. The disc in question is no longer mint, and if it is knowingly sold as such it is a dishonest practice.

@s1lence: I also have many CD-ROM games that are very old (were there conventional CDROM games before 1992?), but I also have games that are only 11 years old that do have disc rot (Zombie Revenge for Dreamcast to name one). As far as we are concerned, Slackur is correct. Once there is disc rot the game is no longer mint, and for some titles they loose a massive amount of value. But even if you are like me and the condition is not the primary value, this does affect game play. This isn't some made up condition and should be taken seriously.

The good news is I think it may be limited in scope. While I do not have a very extensive collection of PSX games, I have found none that have disc rot. Also, none of the PS2 CDROM games I own have it. Contrast this to my Dreamcast collection, where 8 out of 21 have it, and 3 out of 22 for my Sega CD. I'd like to also find out which games on the PSX have it, and if there is some soft of detectable pattern.

over half of my dreamcast collection is infected with disc rot and ive known about the condition for years but slakur came up with an article far better than anything I could hope to write. And honestly I thought it was a well known problem. GD-Roms are the most commonly affected video game media to my knowledge, probably because they where made on a very tight budget (especially towards the dreamcasts end) and by the simple stuffed full of data design that was the GD-rom.

Dreamcast is indeed very suspect for disc rot, as has been noted here. Also above the 10-15% disc rot ratio for me personally has been Sega CD, Turbo Grafx CD/Super CD, Saturn, CD-I, 3DO, and music CDs and PC CD-Roms in the 95 to 2000 range. PSX, PS2 and up seem to be under the 5% percent range. Interestingly, I've found a few A/V forums that are noticing some Blu-Ray discs already showing disc rot, though only a few specific titles. DVDs appear largely to be under 5%.

These averages aren't just from my own personal collection, but from my observations working in electronic media retail for over a decade. Between mom-and-pop gaming stores to Gamestop, these are the estimates I've loosely recorded.

Also somewhat scary is that once you know what to look for, you start finding TINY holes that are incredibly easy to miss. I've done a once-over on many discs in mom-and-pop stores and conventions, only to get them home and find easy-to-miss disc rot. And unfortunately, it stopped some of them from working, from the aforementioned import of Rondo of Blood and Panzer Dragoon Saga to Beyond Shadowgate, Gate of Thunder, G. Darius (PSX), Enemy Zero, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei and House of the Dead to name only a few. NOT cheap dates.

Previously I thought disc rot was only limited to Laserdisc media. Dreamcast was always picky with scratched discs and just worn out GD-R drives. The one thing that always bugged me about sellers is that they just load the game up to the title screen and call it working most of the time.

I already knew what disc rot was (although I was under the impression that a humid climate speeds up the process, guess that isn't true) but I didn't know it was such a widespread problem.

It's a damn shame that so many great systems (Dreamcast, Saturn, Turbo CD, ...) seem to be affected by this problem. I really do hope that the disc pressing process has become better over time because it would be very, very annoying if like 5 years from now, disc rot PS2 games would start to show up everywhere. And in 10 years time, 360 & Wii & PS3 games. That would be terrible.

I just checked my meager SegaCD and DC collections, and found no rot on them. As for seeing 80% of the artwork through, when you use a strong enough light, the mylar is actually not completely opaque. This is normal. Just as long as you don't see actual pinholes like in the article, you're golden on the visual inspection.

Bright light is crucial in making the holes visible. The poor or even average lighting in game stores and on convention floors are the main reason I miss disc rot even when I'm looking for it. I started carrying a Mag-Lite mini flashlight for closer inspections. I keep one with my collection guide, just in case. It might sound a little silly, especially when people look at you as you are inspecting the disc, but lemme tell you, I've saved myself hundreds of dollars and more than a little heartache by checking on the spot.

Last convention I went to, I found a seller with about 20 rare/uncommon Saturn games I didn't have. After checking with the flashlight, I ended up handing 13 of them right back to the seller. I couldn't believe that many were damaged- he probably stored them in a humid environment, which is known to speed up the deterioration.

As for CD bronzing, Izret101 is right- similar destruction of the information layer, but due to a slightly different chemical reaction. Both still originate with bad manufacturing processes and improper protective lacquer sealing.

@Izret101: I have a few (I think 1-2) discs that show some bronze coloration myself. It's Jet Set Radio Future on the Xbox and another game which I can't remember. Last time I played them, they worked though.

Let me clarify my last comment about disc storage, because it may sound like I'm recanting what I stated about disc rot not being the owner's fault.

Several sources I've read state that storing discs in humid environments speeds up the disc rot deterioration, as heat tends to do to chemical processes. It makes logical sense to me, but I'm not a chemist or engineer. As I've always kept my discs well within the optimum standards of temperature and humidity, it is not a claim I myself have verified.

The seller I mentioned above had so many Saturn games with visible disc rot that I wondered if he had them in improper storage, such as a warehouse without temperature control. The extreme temperature changes would theoretically quicken the already set disc rot, and more games that had it would be more visible. The point would be that disc rot starts as a manufacturing defect and gets worse over time, accelerated by improper care. Discs kept in improper care can be assumed to get damaged over time, but I haven't seen any data that would show it resulting in disc rot. If the lacquer is hot enough to break down, it seems there would be other evidence of damage to that disc from the heat. However, it makes more sense (to me at least) that humidity would more greatly affect already present contaminants.

Same thing with storage around acidic components, such as paper sleeves and inlays. Even the booklets included with most games pressing against the CDs could cause an acidic chemical reaction over the years. Again, for the more paranoid out there, the purpose of the protective lacquer layer is to prevent such things, and unless there are problems with the pressing, it should do just that.

Back to the seller, of course the guy might just have been scamming with a bunch of damaged goods he picked up, but he looked honestly confused and a little surprised when I showed him the disc rot. Maybe he was a good actor. I just try to give the benefit of the doubt.

I just went through my loose Sega CD games, and found a couple with the rot. Two games just had one hole, but another one had 6 or 7 holes. The light in my game room wasn't bright enough and neither was the sun on this overcast day, so I used a small LED flashlight that I take garage saling and it worked nicely. I just held it under the disc a half inch or so and scanned the surface of the disc and the holes just lit up. I usually just carry the light for when I go into a house or garage that has poor lighting, but it will really come in handy for check for bit rot. I plan on using a larger LED light at home though to check my current collection.

A few days ago I asked an ebay store selling Turbo CD games to check 4 titles I wanted to buy. I sent him a link to this article and asked him to look for disc rot and get back to me before I would purchase.

Got a return email yesterday. Turns out, he found disc rot in 2 of the 4 games. Now I can buy the others feeling a lot more confident.

Guys, this is great- if any of you buy classic CD video games, especially online, please start asking sellers to check for this problem. It doesn't have to be this article in particular, just anything online to help a seller know how to look and what to look for.

If we all request for this check in the future, not only will we avoid buying damaged games, but we can create the expectation that sellers will list disc rot as part of the disc condition: in the same category as scratches, label markings or stickers on the disc.

I promise you, it will go a long way toward making classic CD game collecting easier.

I have a question. As a seller, what can be done with rotted discs? Are they still sellable as "disc rot" specials or should the discs just be thrown out? Or should they just be saved for buyers that don't ask if the discs are rotted? (I wouldn't do that, but I know there are people out there that would).

I can very easily see sellers not voluntarily listing disc rot as a part of the condition, because its like they have a perfectly good disc, then check it for rot and if its there, that disc is suddenly no good and they just lost money. And they can't really list the rot free discs because that would make anything that didn't specify very suspicious. Maybe if the word of disc rot gets out there and all collectors are aware of it, and resellers can check the discs before they buy them, it could happen. But I don't see that happening for a year or two after the disc rot topic has been integrated into the hobby.

Your observation there is exactly the problem I've seen. There have been a few times I've emailed a seller and they found disc rot on a game, or I've shipped back a disc rot game, and the seller just re-lists the game for sale without mentioning the problem. I've even had a seller tell me to quickly ship the game back so they could resell it to someone else. It's terrible, and I make a list of sellers that I won't deal with because of such issues. I usually try not to make too big a fuss to them, I just make a note to myself and don't deal with them anymore.

The sad part is that, after so many problems, it now keeps me from many of the popular sellers of hard to find games online. After I have seen that they hassle me over disc rot or admit they are going to resell without mentioning the damage, I mark them off my list for future purchases.

Now its getting hard to find sellers whom I trust anymore.

NES, I myself consider disc rot a notch worse than 'badly scratched' in terms of condition. Sure, it might play fine, but you never know if one day you'll try to load it and it never works again. That scenario has happened to me a few times. Worse, often scratches can be repaired, but disc rot damage is forever.

I've thrown some out (the last one was Project Justice for DC, worked for awhile and then stopped altogether. Replaced the disc with a loose disc I bought, threw out the disc rot one.) Some of the more obviously damaged ones I've even mailed to sellers in addition to their damaged game so they might more easily see the type of problem I'm referring to and better see what to look for.

I've gotten burned with this problem for so many years, it seems a pipe dream to still think that it will become something people in our hobby check for as frequently as other kinds of damage. But this thread has given me a little renewed hope that, as NES mentioned, it will one day be integrated as a more global understanding.

Wow, I am sorry that you happen to have this issue as well. I have had 6 so far in 2010 that had this issue and it has drove me up the wall as well. All but 1 was from the same seller and every single one was a Sega Saturn game. This has also taken down moral over trust on online dealers, but I stick to my few that will not screw me over. I also check every single disc on atleast 1 system to make sure it works before I ever send them out, 6 years no issues to date Oh yeah I totally respect your collection, it looks real nice

While I hate that another collector has had as many problems, (6 is my count this year too) it is actually a bit refreshing to hear of others in the same boat. Start to wonder if its just me after awhile, you know? Still, I feel for ya.

And kudos to an honest seller! If you have any other sellers you'd recommend, especially for online stores or people with older CD video games you trust, please pm me. I'm sure looking for them.

I'm sorry I just don't see this as a big issue. Every single game I have that's on a CD works perfectly fine, every DVD I own works perfectly fine. There's a high probability that some of them have disc rot. I'm not convince by this article.

@yassassass: Do you use all those discs on a regular basis? Just putting the disc in and having it load doesn't mean that any disc rot hasn't harmed the contents. The bits of information lost might be at the very end of the game where you haven't noticed. And sure, the game may have played fine all the way through the last time you played it, but if that was years ago, things very well might have changed.

@ApolloBoy: I think he's saying that while he does believe in disc rot, he doesn't believe it to be a big problem.

@ApolloBoy: I know about disc rot, what I'm saying is that I don't think there's a high probability of it affecting the actual games... I mean, I would assume more people would mention it. As is this is the first time I heard about disc rot legitimately affecting games in the 17 or so years cd games have existed. I mean, this isn't the only videogame site I frequent by a long shot, but this is the first time I've heard about disc rot being presented as some astronomical problem.

@yassassass:I honestly hope you never have problems with it. But I can promise you it is a serious issue that affects more collectors than they realize, and it is a documented problem, just not a well-known one. That's why I wrote this article.

Its really sad that I read your post just now; let me explain why. I just got a box literally yesterday that was the exchange I received from buying a disc rot game. In that box were several Turbo chip games, and two CD games. You guessed it, both had disc rot. One of them was Splash Lake, and it was sealed new. I opened it, checked, and found several holes. The other was Gate of Thunder, a game I used to own and have played through many times (lately on WiiWare.) Gate of Thunder had no visible scratches and only two tiny disc rot holes.

I still wanted to play Gate of Thunder, so I popped it in and played through the entire game. About half way through the music began skipping, and it even stuttered during gameplay a few times. During the last four stages, the music would cut in and out every few seconds. I finished the game on that playthrough, but I'm not necessarily convinced that it will work even that well in the future.

I'm the original owner of a Rondo of Blood Castlevania for PC-Engine Duo, opened it new myself for Christmas in '94. Worked perfect for almost ten years. Then the game music began skipping. Then an occasional stage would not load. Now if I get the mental wherewithall to actually try, I can get through the entire game maybe half the time, never with all of the music playing. Still no scratches on the disc, but there are many visibly disc rot holes.

And here's where it really gets into sob-story territory. Opening Splash Lake gave me the idea to go ahead and open my sealed Turbo CD games I bought at CCAG last year. If you checked my collection you'd notice I now have 4 fewer games listed in my collection. Out of the 5 bought, 4 had damage. I paid extra for new, sealed games. For a collector, that's money down the drain. For a gamer, that's wondering which one will be the next Rondo or Gate of Thunder.

I have dozens of games like this. I still have most of them because I don't think it's moral to sell them damaged. Its the denial that this is a real problem that lead me to write this article, after buying dozens of games that ended up having disc rot. If there's any way you can think of that I can prove this to you other than the documentation and anecdotal experience, PLEASE let me know. I have games on Turbo CD, Sega CD, CD-I, 3DO, Saturn, Dreamcast, and music CDs that either no longer play correctly or play at all, and many were bought new. How else can I prove this?

I've been thinking about disc rot quite a bit lately, and now I'm considering selling off all my disc-based games and using backups instead of the originals. I'm afraid that some of my most valuable disc-based games like Symphony of the Night or Tail Concerto are going to fall prey to this someday, and it's going to be very costly to find replacements for those games.

Just thought that I'd mention that on my Dremcast lots I just put on eBay, I mentioned that the discs were bit rot free. Maybe that will help raise awareness among a couple eBayers about bit rot. If I get any questions about it, I'll be sure to point out this post.

@NES_Rules: That's very encouraging. I always have to ask, and most of the time I miss the sale and/or the seller doesn't know what to look for ("But it is mint! No scratches!). If I ever see a listing for CD games that are checked for holes, I'd even pay a little extra for the peace of mind and the effort from the seller.

@Link41: The feedback has been mostly positive, and I'm wondering if there is a way to carry this further (if it can be) and put it up in something like a forum topic or just leave it as is for linking as a reference. I'm already labeled as a pin-hole Nazi (to put it kindly) to some people.

I put in my two cents over this debate at DigitPress a few years ago and had several people argue that the problem didn't exist, people with thousands of discs never reported problems, or that the pinholes did not effect data integrity. It discouraged me until a few expensive yet ruined purchases online this year pushed me over the edge to write this post.

@slackur: I think I remember that thread on DP. I was going through PS1 games today to sell, and almost every one that had bit rot wouldn't play. But a few, some that had a bunch of holes even, played for the few minutes I tested them just fine. So I think its entirely possible that a bit rot damaged game may be perfectly playable. At least for now, but my thought is that if there is one hole, then its entirely possible that hole can spread to a larger area like rust growing under the pain on a car, eventually it will get to a crucial part of the code and the game will be unplayable.

Also I just wanted to say its incredible how badly rotted some of my discs were, a couple literally looked like Swiss cheese.

@NES_Rules: It amazes me also how some games have only one or two holes and won't play, or some have a constellation of holes and seem to play fine. Most games don't take up the entire disc by a long shot, have redundant data on the disc, and use disc space for things that the holes might take awhile to get to in-game, like the soundtrack or textures found late-game.

And your thought about more holes developing over time is consistent with my understanding of the problem and, more importantly, my observations of my own collection over time.

I have a (probably simple) question about looking for disc rot. I just checked my copy of Symphony of the Night (PSX) and it didn't seem like there were any holes like the ones pictured, but I could barely see the light through the entire disc. No point of white light, just always purple tinted, faint light. Is the entire disc effected or is this normal.

@BigJessT: Nope, that sounds normal. PS1 discs are dyed a dark purple/black color unlike your typical semi-transparent disc. Unless you see a while dot like the picture above you should be good. Some discs are more translucent than others but data rot always shows up as bright as the light source behind the disc (which is why bright lights are crucial for testing.)

@slackur: That is perfectly logical. Game A could have just one hole, but if that hole is on an essential part of the data, like the game engine or anything like that, you're screwed. Game B on the other hand could have a couple of holes, but if those holes take away a texture for level 25, part of the music for level 19, and other non-critical data, well then it'll probably play just fine until it reaches level 19.

Thanks for this info I resell games and dvd's on ebay and will now include disc rot in the condition area. What I really came here looking for was if anyone could recommend a program to check data integrity on game discs and dvd's so I don't have to watch/play them the whole way through any suggestions? Thanks Enigmaohawaii

@enigmaohawaii:Sorry, I never found an actual data integrity program that doesn't seem too glitchy to completely trust. Years ago when I was tech support for a university, we had an actual machine just for checking disc data integrity, but I haven't seen one since. Considering our collection, I should look into one again...

There were a couple options I discussed with people. One is possibly doing an MD5 hash check on the disk - redump.org has verifiable MD5 hashes. Another is using a program that verifies that all sectors on the disk can be read via CD-ROM/DVD drive, but that only works if the media can be read by your PC's drive and it's spotty at best.

I just took awhile because I wanted to follow up myself. Unfortunately, as Shadow mentioned, there are some techniques to test but nothing seems to be completely 100% reliable. Which means, when testing the absolute reliability of a disc, its kinda worthless.

And no worries about old posts. True to the nature of us retro gamers, we recycle threads or anything else we can still get use out of.

Literally every one of my ps3 and ps4 games has a couple of little pin sized holes when held up to the light. It's just a manufacturing defect when the label is printed onto the disc. It's not disc rot so quit trying to make people paranoid over nothing. Geez

@Davidaz1978:lol I see someone found my pic that randomly showed up in a CAG forum.

As mentioned before, I've bought a disc new, it played fine. Over the years these pinholes emerged, and the disc no longer played correctly. This has happened dozens of times, particularly with the older CD media systems. After extensive research to make sure I understood the issue, I posted this article to be helpful, not as a scare tactic. Over the years I've had other collectors discuss this same issue with me, and their experience mirrored my own.

Sorry we disagree, and feel free to disregard the advice in this article. But I do completely stand by it.

Lol. Ahhh the nerds of America unite. Crabmaster? Where did you come up with that name? Some people I swear. Worrying about little holes in cds and doing research on such nonsense is a compete waste of time.

Feel free to share the slide show. I should still have both discs kicking around somewhere. Better camera now and more time has passed so maybe damage has progressed. I'll try and dig them out again sometime and take new pictures.

@Davidaz1978: Just because you haven't experienced it, and your "pinholes" haven't caused you problems, doesn't mean it isn't a problem. Being able to see through the data layer of the disc means that you're missing data, and for some manufacturing processes and systems (Sega especially for most of their optical media) it's not as fault tolerant on the seeks. Location is everything on these holes too.

Also, please don't come into a community you know nothing about just to start shit. I think your comments (and account creation) is a complete waste of time as well, so I'm going to guarantee it is. Enjoy your ban.

I became aware of this years ago, not for video games, but for actual data storage. Once upon a time, CD's (650-700MB) were looked at as a viable means to backup data, and particularly for archival purposes. The reason being that they were much cheaper than tape, had similar capacity, and were touted as having a shelf life of 50-? years.

It wasn't six months after I was researching a way to use CD's to archive data when I read about disk rot. I have been fortunate to not have run into it much so far, but I have definitely seen it.

I am surprised that this isn't completely common knowledge by now as the story I am telling was from the year 2001.

I think I feel kind of sick after reading this. I'm no collector or reseller, I'm more of a hoarder, but I have a very deep-seated fear of time and decay. Somehow it never occurred to me that games could rot, too...

I'm too afraid to check. Like I said, I'm not a reseller, so it won't hurt anyone if I continue living in blissful ignorance...

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